CIVIL SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT DURING ACCESSION: ON THE NECESSITY OF DOMESTIC SUPPORT TO EU INCENTIVES

• Authors: Eline De Ridder
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article examines the development of Czech and Slovak civil society during the Eastern enlargement. While EU accession has without doubt benefited the consolidation of democracy, the impact of the European Union is often overestimated. We support this argument by setting side by side EU actions to promote civil society in the candidate countries on the one hand, and the Czech and Slovak domestic policies on civil society development on the other. The empirical evidence suggests that contrary to what Europeanization literature may expect, Czech and Slovak civil society development during accession cannot be explained by EU actions alone. Domestic support proves to be the necessary condition for EU incentives to result in the development of civil society in candidate countries.

Keywords

EN

CIVIL SOCIETY; DEVELOPMENT; ACCESSION; EU; SLOVAKIA; CZECH REPUBLIC; EUROPEAN UNION

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociológia (Sociology)
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 23 – 656

Contributors

author

Eline De Ridder

• Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Centre for EU Studies, Universiteitstraat 8, 9000 Gent, Belgium